Holt Lake Water Level
Holt Lake is at 186.21 ft today (Oct 31), 0.79 ft below its 187 ft full pool, down 0.23 ft this week.
Alabama · Black Warrior River
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Water level history
About Holt Lake
Holt Lake is a reservoir on the Black Warrior River in Alabama, operated by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Its full summer pool sits at 187 ft above sea level. Live water levels come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (CWMS) and update hourly.
Understanding Holt Lake's water level
Holt Lake is a navigation pool, and its level is managed to stay put. The Corps of Engineers holds it at a normal elevation of 187 feet with fourteen 40-foot radial gates on the spillway, and Alabama Power's single-unit powerhouse at the dam runs as a run-of-river plant, passing roughly what comes down from Bankhead instead of storing it for later. At normal pool the lake holds about 118,000 acre-feet across 3,296 acres and backs up the Black Warrior River about 19 miles to John Hollis Bankhead Lock and Dam. The dam sits about 2.3 miles northeast of the Holt community in Tuscaloosa County, at river mile 347, and drains 4,230 square miles of north Alabama. A reading a foot or so off 187 usually means the gates are catching up with a change in inflow, not a drawdown.
The lock is the reason the lake exists. Its chamber is 110 feet wide and 600 feet long with a maximum lift of 64 feet, and it is one of three Corps structures in a roughly 30 mile stretch that together step the waterway down about 160 feet. Bankhead lies upstream and William Bacon Oliver Lock and Dam lies downstream at Tuscaloosa; at flows below about 50,000 cubic feet per second, Oliver's pool sets the water level below Holt. Most of the freight is coal, chiefly metallurgical coal bound for McDuffie Coal Terminal at the Port of Mobile, with alloys and raw materials moving north to Birmingham's steel industry. The project was impounded in 1965, opened to navigation in 1966 and completed in 1969, replacing four older locks on this reach.
In late May 2024 the lock operator noticed new cracking in a concrete monolith that had shown cracks for eight or nine years. A stability analysis put its safety factor at 0.5, and the Mobile District closed the lock at noon on 22 June 2024, cutting off barge traffic from mines and mills in northeast Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties just weeks after Demopolis Lock reopened from its own four month outage. Holt reopened on 2 October 2024 under temporary operating status after 102 days, with a bulkhead system that relieves pressure on Monolith 14; the Corps plans anchors as the long-term fix. Out on the lake, state biologists report abundant largemouth bass up to 18 inches in the backwaters and spotted bass up to 15 inches in the riverine reaches, with crappie in woody cover and weed beds and bream in the wooded creeks.
Holt Lake — frequently asked
What is Holt Lake's full pool?
187 feet above sea level. That is the normal navigation pool, held by fourteen 40-foot radial gates on the spillway, whose crest sits at 152.5 feet. At that elevation the lake covers 3,296 acres and stores about 118,000 acre-feet. Because the pool exists to keep barges moving through the lock, the Corps does not run a seasonal drawdown the way it does on storage reservoirs.
Why does Holt Lake's water level barely change?
Holt is a navigation pool, not a storage reservoir. The spillway gates are operated to maintain the 187 foot pool, and Alabama Power's 49 megawatt plant at the dam is licensed as run-of-river, so it passes inflow from Bankhead rather than banking water. During floods the extra water goes through the gates and the change shows up in the river below the dam far more than on the lake.
How high is the lift at Holt Lock?
The maximum lift is 64 feet, measured at 64.1 feet in a USGS report, making it one of the bigger single steps on the Black Warrior. The chamber is 110 feet wide and 600 feet long. Holt, Bankhead and Oliver together drop the waterway about 160 feet in roughly 30 miles, which is why this short reach needs three locks.
Why was Holt Lock closed in 2024?
A concrete monolith in the lock wall had been cracking for years, and in late May 2024 new cracks appeared and the structure began to move under pressure. A stability analysis found a safety factor of 0.5, and the Corps closed the lock on 22 June 2024. It reopened on 2 October 2024, after 102 days, under temporary operating status, with a bulkhead fix in place while anchors are planned as the permanent repair.
What are the highest river crests recorded at Holt Lock and Dam?
The National Weather Service gauge for the Black Warrior at Holt Lock and Dam lists a top crest of 156.87 feet on 3 December 1983, followed by 154.88 feet on 13 April 1979 and 152.30 feet on 20 March 1970. Those readings track the river below the dam, well under the 187 foot lake pool. Major flood stage on that gauge is 158 feet, and industrial property near Warrior Road begins to flood around 146 feet.
Who owns the dam and the power plant at Holt Lake?
The Corps of Engineers owns the lock and dam. Alabama Power owns and maintains the powerhouse, which was the final phase of the company's hydroelectric development of the Black Warrior. The plant has a single turbine of about 47 to 49 megawatts, estimated at about 154 million kilowatt-hours a year, and FERC relicensed it as Project 2203 in December 2016.
What is the fishing like on Holt Lake?
Alabama's fisheries biologists say largemouth bass up to 18 inches and spotted bass up to 15 inches are abundant. Largemouth hold mostly in backwaters, while spotted bass are best in the riverine part of the lake. Crappie use woody cover and weed beds lakewide, and bream fishing is good in summer in the wooded creeks. A boating lane below Bankhead Dam reaches tailwaters where drum, catfish, buffalo and hybrid striped bass are caught.
Other lakes near Holt Lake
- Lake JordanAL
- Lake Harding (Bartletts Ferry)GA/AL
- Lay LakeAL
- Lake GuntersvilleAL
- Lewis Smith LakeAL
- Demopolis LakeAL
See current levels for all 21 Alabama lakes and reservoirs →
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